


You can try (but you can't stop time)

by Shayera Thal (WierdAlienFantasies)



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Butterfly Effect, DC Comics Rebirth, Death of characters in Alternate Timelines, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Bat Clan members, Multiple attempts to change the timeline, The Victim Syndicate, Timeloops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 09:52:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17578619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WierdAlienFantasies/pseuds/Shayera%20Thal
Summary: Kate Kane is prepared to do anything necessary to save the GCPD after a plot by the Victim Syndicate turns into a massacre. With the help of the Time Pack, anything ends up turning into everything.





	You can try (but you can't stop time)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Panny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panny/gifts).



Kate stands alone in the Bat Cave. Bruce, Alfred and all the others are out. No doubt they are attending the latest funeral. Part of Kate is grasped by a pang of guilt. She should be at the funeral too, like she’s been at the last seventeen. She has to remind herself that those seventeen funerals, the one going on now and all the ones that have yet to happen are the reason she is here now.

None of the others would approve. Bruce and Tim had both delved into the myriad of risks of time travel, the threats to the whole of reality and physics itself. The danger is the very reason Bruce took possession of the device, a so-called ‘Time Pack’, and kept it under lock and key in the Bat Cave. He claimed time travel was not an appropriate solution, no matter what problem they faced. Whatever happened had to be allowed to happen.

Kate can’t accept that. She can’t accept that the Victim Syndicate, whipped into a frenzy, managed to storm the GCPD Station and slaughter every officer on duty just to send a message to Batman. She can’t accept that eighty six officers are now dead, Renee among them. She can’t accept they were meant to die.

So here she stands, facing a glass case containing the ridiculous looking Time Pack. She could still back out at this point, turn around and leave. She’s already made up her mind though. She will do whatever it takes to save Renee and the other officers. Nobody, not even Bruce, can stop her. She clenches her fist, then with a single punch shatters the glass case. As alarms go off, she reaches inside and hefts the Time Pack onto her back. With a push of a button her surroundings blur, and she’s thrown into the time-stream.

* * *

 

**Attempt One**

All Kate has to do is ensure none of the GCPD officers are at the Station that evening. If she can arrange it so that they are all out on call there will be nobody left for the Victim Syndicate to harm. She doesn’t have to interact face to face with any of them, in fact she can avoid being seen by anyone (and so hopefully avoid those physics shattering time-travel paradoxes Bruce and Tim had been so concerned about). She can save them all. She can save _Renee_.

To give her enough time to plan everything Kate goes back to two days before the incident. The hardest part is working out where to send the officers. There are few locations far enough out that they won’t return in time, and she has to be careful to spread out her tips so that they come from different locations. A mix of Wayne Tech from Bruce and Colony software from her father allows her to leave anonymous calls, texts and even web alerts that appear to originate from different locations throughout Gotham.

Finally, two hours before the Victim Syndicate massacre is due to start, she steps back to admire her work. With a final typed command she sets off her sequence of false tips and call outs. Satisfied that she has done what was needed, she taps the button on the Time Pack to send her back to her native time.

_At first, officers follow the anonymous tips diligently. But, as none of them seem to lead to anything, Renee grows suspicious. Studying the pattern of deployments, she quickly realises that they are designed to lure officers as far from the GCPD Station as possible. Sending out a dispatch to recall all officers, she races back… only to come face to face with the Victim Syndicate mob. She is the first to die; thirty two officers make it back to the Station to be slaughtered before the Bat Clan are able to quell the riot._

* * *

 

**Attempt Nine**

Eight failures. Kate can hear her father’s voice in her head. _Come on Katey girl, I taught you better than this. You’re a solider, you’re a Kane; we don’t give up until we’ve got the damn job done._ Kate knows he’s right. She can’t stop, not now, not ever. Her repeated failures not only weigh on her mind but are also beginning to show on her body. It appears there is a side-effect to repeated use of the Time Pack: accelerated cellular senescence. Going back so many times is costing her years of her life, but she cannot stop. She will keep doing it until she saves them all.

 Bruce would claim this is some complex puzzle to be solved. Kate herself is no idiot, but she doesn’t have his detective mind. She can’t solve this Bruce’s way, her previous eight attempts have shown that much. But doesn’t mean she can’t solve this. As Kate’s body rematerializes from the time-stream, she checks the gun in her hand is loaded one last time. She didn’t want it to come to this, but she is a solider. She knows the rules of engagement. Sometimes in order to save good people you have to kill bad people. And there are bad people out there; with all she’s seen she cannot believe in redemption the same way the rest of the Bat Clan do.

She does not take what she is about to do lightly. Killing does not come easy for her, nor would she ever wish it to. She carries the weight of each life she’s taken within her soul. But, if given the choice, she would take each one again. She is certain she made the right decision, just as she is certain she is making the right decision now. Let the others judge her. What she is about to do is the only course of action left.

Silently Kate works the lock on the window then slides it open just wide enough to slip through. Activating her mask’s night vision, she makes her way through the mess littering the living room and into the hall. She heads straight for the room at the far end of the corridor. She carefully pushes open the door and steps inside. The room is empty save for a tattered bed in its centre. A figure lies on the mattress deep asleep.

James West. A man with no history of violence, a beloved teacher at the community college. A man who, in less than 24 hours, will fire the shot that ignites the killing spree at GCPD central. He will be caught at the scene, offering no resistance. When questioned he will express regret over the officers’ deaths but stand by the Victim Syndicate’s view that it was necessary to save Gotham from Batman.

Kate takes aim, a slight tremor in her right hand causing the barrel of her gun to waiver. It is murder in cold blood, but it is necessary. If she makes the shot one person dies. If she fails to eighty six will die tomorrow. _Renee_ will die tomorrow. Kate bites down on her tongue, then pulls the trigger.

_James West’s body lies undiscovered in his apartment. At the riot outside GCPD Station, Zac DeLise fires his pistol and starts the bloodbath that leads to the death of every officer on duty._

* * *

 

**Attempt Seventeen**

Kate can’t remember the last time her sleep was undisturbed. Every time she closes her eyes she sees the bodies. Each time she goes back to the present she hopes she’ll have been successful, but each time she is greeted by the same sight. She knows each of the bodies by heart, even in the cases where they were so torn apart that it was near impossible to locate all the pieces.

She looks like she’s aged ten years. In a way she has, the effects of Time Pack burning through her body. It does not stop her from reaching for it again, this time setting the date for further than she’s tried before. She’s not been thinking about the wider picture. To stop this, to finally succeed, she has to go back to the beginning. She has to halt the Victim Syndicate before it can ever form.

She spends one attempt cloaked in the time-stream tracking the First Victim back in time until she learns their original identity. The next attempt is considerably shorter. She travels back to the point just before the First Victim’s fateful encounter with Bruce on his first night as the Bat. _It is necessary._ The words have become hollow even to her, but she is too good a solider to shirk from her duty. This time she does not hesitate to pull the trigger. She pushes down her self-loathing as she watches the body slump to the ground.

_The people of Gotham do not rise up and riot with no First Victim to stir them into a righteous frenzy with their clever rhetoric. Within the GCPD station all is quiet and calm. Then figures materialise from the shadows. They are agents of death; assassins from the League of Shadows. There are led by Shiva, driven by the desire for vengeance over Bruce’s perceived theft of her daughter and heir. The fight that follows is as short as it is one-sided. Shiva leaves Gordon alone alive, long enough to pass on her message to Bruce before succumbing to his injuries._

* * *

 

**Attempt Twenty Two**

Kate knows she’s running out of time. Through her last three attempts the effects of the Time Pack have seemingly accelerated. Her body looks and feels as though she’s in her late sixties. If she continues to use it, she’ll simply wither away. She has to make this attempt count. She has nothing left to lose, and so she goes for the direct route. Warnings of catastrophic paradoxes be damned, she is going to do what she should have done the first time.

Kate stumbles out of the time-stream outside the GCPD Station just as the crowd of Victim Syndicate followers starts to coalesce. Taking a single breath to clear her mind, Kate steps forward and shouts out to the crowd.

“Victim Syndicate! I know who you are, and why you are here. You want to rid Gotham of the Bat. See this symbol on my chest? I’m one of them, one the soldiers that fights alongside him. But I’m more than that. You want to send a message to Batman? Forget the GCPD, you should come after me. I’m his cousin. Killing the police would get to him, but killing me would _break_ him.”

For a moment, Kate fears her desperate plan will fail. The Victim Syndicate mills about, uncertain. Then, from somewhere deep within the crowd, a glass bottle sails through the air to shatter against her body armour. With that the decision appears to be made, the crowd surging forward as one to fall upon her. She stands tall, throwing everything she has into the fight. She uses her training, every Bat-gadget Bruce saw fit to give her, even the crowded conditions to the fullest advantage. Still it is mere minutes before the sheer numbers overwhelm her and she is pulled to the ground.

Kate tries in vain to shield her body as the brutal assault continues. She doesn’t really feel it as first one, then two, then five ribs crack under the onslaught. She barely tastes the blood as her lip is spilt open and she loses four teeth. As her body breaks piece by piece under the onslaught she manages to grit her remaining teeth and smile because she’s finally done it. This time, at last, she’s saved them all. This time she’s saved _Renee_.

The repeated blows to the head (or maybe the blood loss) dull her senses so that she doesn’t notice at first when the assault lessens then halts altogether. The shouts of fighting around her, not _against_ her, intensify then abruptly fade to silence. The silence stretches on. Kate is just starting to wonder if one of the blows to her head ruptured her eardrums when a single word pierces the silence.

“Kate?”

Kate recognises the voice instantly. She’s held it close, replaying the last time she heard it through all her failed attempts. She tries to turn and face the direction the voice came from, but finds her body will not obey her. She’s dying, but the realisation comes as more of a detached observation. She has achieved her mission. She died in the line of duty, and that’s all she could have asked for.

Somebody is cradling her body, but her vision’s fading so that she can’t make them out. Maybe it’s Bruce, or maybe it’s Tim or Cass or Steph. Maybe it’s Renee, or even the younger version of herself (if that’s even possible). Whoever it is, Kate clutches at their arm and forces out words between the blood that continues to well up in her mouth.

“I had to do it… nothing else worked. Couldn’t let them… kill all those people… too damn stubborn to let it end that way…”

She thinks about all the things she’s always meant to say, all the people she’s never told how much they mean to her. She opens her mouth, but finds no more words can come out. She can’t even feel her body anymore. Her last thought is quiet acceptance of her own death.

* * *

 After seeing herself die Kate slipped away without a word to anyone. She’d gone back to her flat and stripped out of her uniform before stepping into the shower. The warm water had been unable to wash away the image of an older, broken version of herself lying bleeding on the floor. Refusing to give up, Kate had changed and headed out to her favourite dive bar. Neither her father nor Bruce would approve, but Kate doesn’t give a damn about their opinions.

She’s partway through her third beer when she hears someone sit down next to her.

“Bourbon, on the rocks. Thanks.”

Kate freezes on hearing the voice, but refuses to turn and face the women sat next to her. Silence stretches until the bartender returns with the ordered drink. The woman takes a long sip, then speaks again.

“Still too stubborn for your own good I see. It wouldn’t kill you to talk.”

Kate turns to face the woman, eyes blazing in anger.

“What would you have me say Renee? What’s happened has happened. Talking won’t change a thing.”

As soon as the words are out of her mouth Kate regrets them. A brief flash of hurt crosses Renee’s eyes, but she is quick to school her expression.

“See, this is what happened last time. Whenever something happens you close up and push everyone away. People care about you Kate. You don’t have to do everything by yourself.”

For a moment, Kate allows herself to remember how things used to be between them. She forcibly pushes those thoughts down, throwing the remains of her beer back. She slams the empty glass onto the table with just a little more force than is necessary.

“You don’t have to do this, you know. Whatever you think you owe her… you don’t owe me. She’s dead, and thanks to her actions whatever happened to make her do that has not happened. I’ll never be her.”

“No, I don’t suppose you will be.”

Something in Renee’s voice causes Kate to pause. She turns to face her fully, but finds Renee staring ahead to the stock behind the bar. There’s a strange look on her face.

“I don’t have to do this… but I want to. I know last time things between us didn’t work out, but if today proved anything it’s that things can change. Maybe we should try again. No history, no capes, no strings attached. Just two women.”

Renee turns to look at Kate. Her head is held high, no plea etched in her features. There’s an honest question though. Kate has to think for all of two seconds to find the answer. A wry smile spreads across her face.

“Just two women? I think I could drink to that.”

Renee rolls her eyes, but a smile spreads across her own face.

“A drink? I was hoping you’d have something else in mi-“

Kate surges forward to cut her off with a kiss. For a terrifying heartbeat Renee stays still, then she wraps one hand around the back of Kate’s head and takes control of the kiss. As the kiss deepens, Kate thinks that if this is what “just two women” feels like, she’s willing to do more than try.


End file.
